Is there anything that will phase New Yorkers?

There they are, in the New York Public Library studying for the LSATs or reading gardening books or doing long division. Here comes a guy dressed up like a Charlie Brown ghost. The ghost sits down with his laptop. Another ghost uses the Oxford English Dictionary. But do the New Yorkers even glance up? Nope.

Then come the Ghost Busters. The New Yorkers look nonplussed.

Nominated for three LibVid Awards: Best Public Library Video, Best Wardrobe, and Best Spoof, we can’t wait to see what kinds of crazy hijinks will happen next at the New York Public Library.

It’s been a quiet humid summer here at the LibVid Awards Offices.  Little did we know, that with this nomination, it was about to get a whole lot steamier.

The advertisement spoof experts at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University are showing us  how it’s done. The Old Spice Man has already made libraries proud, but HBL at BYU has taken it a step further.

New Spice is nominated in two categories: Best Special Effects and Best Spoof. (We also considered adding a new category for Best Biceps!)

Once upon a time, I wandered into a barber shop that sported an “Official Haircuts for Men and Boys” poster over the cash register.  Anachronistic even for Dallas in the mid-1980s, I thought it was hilarious.  Since that time I’ve been a huge fan of the 1950s/1960s era films, filmstrips, and posters that were meant to guide the impressionable youth of the time on to the path of correct behavior.

The good folks at the J.Michael Goodson Law Library at Duke, with staff from their Academic Technology department too, have taken those social etiquette films to heart in this libvid, a response to patron complaints about behavior in the library.  This reader submitted (thanks!) nomination is for Best Narration category.  Interlibrary Loan manager, Lee Cloninger’s radio voice harks back to the golden age of youth focused propaganda instruction.  In fact the entire production was just swell!

The debate is raging in libraries everywhere:

Is the Lady Gaga tribute created by the students and faculty of the University of Washington’s Information School the most awesome library video of all time? Or it is the most awkward library video of all time?

All we know is that we’d love to use the Information School’s  c-c-c-c-catalog.

It’s nominated for Best Musical.

I don’t know about you, but I believe in my heart of hearts that “library induction” just has a better ring to it than “library orientation.” The good people at the University of Plymouth in Devon, UK think so too.

This collaboration between the Faculty of Arts librarians  and Jon Mason, a third-year media arts student, consists of a three-video library induction for “fresher students.” Part I expands on the idea that, while the library has books, lots of books, it also has more than just books. Part II explains how to find books and other materials in the library. And Part III moves beyond books and into other electronic resources.

These short libvids (totaling about 7 minutes all together) are also pretty funny, including living history actors, interviews with students in their squalid apartments, and smart editing choices. The upbeat, silly mood ranges from tongue-in-cheek to just plain cheeky.  Super fun to watch.

We’ve nominated this series for three LibVid Awards: Best Editing, Best Narration, and Best Comedy.

This is the story of one very hairy Brown University student’s quest to get the help he needs to write his paper. The assignment [GASP!] is due in [DOUBLE GASP!] four hours. Can one overly-helpful librarian help him find what he needs to research and write his paper in time?

This libvid is one in a six-part series to get Brown students up to speed quickly and easily in finding books, articles, and where to go for help. It’s nominated for Best Acting – Non-librarian for Professor Darrell West’s performance as the Andy’s imaginary Research Fairy.

North Carolina State University Library’s Peer Review in Five Minutes does just that: it gives an amazingly in-depth explanation of the peer review process. Along with loving description of what scholars go through in order to get their articles published in peer reviewed journals, this LibVid has simple, informative animation.

Nominated for Best Animation, Peer Review in Five Minutes is an excellent place to point students who are confused about what peer review means.

The busy Spring has slowed us down a little but we are still thinking about what makes a great libvid.  This one from Coventry University, nominated for Best Documentary, does something that I’m obviously very fond of, it lets the students (or the public, the patrons, or whatever you call your library’s users) tell their peers how they feel about their library.  It is taking word-of-mouth and amplifying it while still covering all the services that the librarians want to show the students.  All without a on-screen librarian to fill in the details.  Admittedly it does run a bit long and the soundtrack is a little too soothing but I think a snappy remix is definitely possible.  And I wish my library had cool looking towers!

I’m not sure how many of today’s students grew up watching The Brady Bunch reruns but a whole lot  of librarians did so this libvid from Barton College Library was a ton of fun to watch. Actually, the spoof will still be recognizable to the youngsters thanks to the rather unfortunate recent film version.  Anyway, this clever video, titled The Hackney Bunch, is nominated for Best Spoof.  I personally can’t wait until they do the famous tiki doll necklace scenes from the Hawaii episodes.  I hope that is coming soon.